BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. (AP) – A plan to try to preserve southern New England’s lobster fishery could come up for a vote in May.

The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has been working on a plan to stave the decline of the lobster fishery in Connecticut, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. The population of lobsters has dwindled in those areas as waters have warmed, though they remain plentiful off of Maine and Canada.

The commission’s plan for the species includes potential strategies such as changing the legal harvesting size limit for lobsters, reducing the number of traps allowed in the water and enforcing new seasonal closures. The plan is scheduled to come up for a vote on May 8. The commission is holding a series of public hearings on the plan in March.